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#Goldnugget: The 3rd build.

Lowrange2

NAXJA Forum User
Location
Abbeville, SC
So, in the 10 years I’ve owned this Jeep and been a member of this Club… I’ve never done a build thread. Figured I’d give it a shot.

From the beginning:
I bought this Jeep on Ebay. “Excellent condition 1993 Jeep Cherokee. AW4, NP231, 3” lift, 31” tires.” Sketchy ad. $100 deposit. Picked it up the next day in Franklin, NC. Got there and the guy told me it had a “built” racing transmission and that’s why it “growled” when it shifted into second gear… Paid the remaining balance and drove it home.

(Side note: On the way to pick it up in my 93 Mazda 626 I rear-ended a brand new Crown Vic full of old people in the rain. Scuffed the paint on both cars, no one was hurt, no claim was made and we were on our way.)

This is what I brought home: (This was actually one of the pictures from the Ebay ad.)
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Didn’t have a single scratch on it. Body was in excellent shape. Interior was super clean. Drove it like that for a little while. Then bought some retarded tall 8” Rusty’s lift, 33” BFG A/T’s.

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Then, one day some woman pulled out in front of me and I hit the ditch, smashed the a-pillar, windshield, drivers side fender and trashed the front suspension. Insurance company cut me a check for more than I paid for the Jeep but let me keep the clear title. I spent that money on new 35” BFG KM1’s, Rock Krawler 3-link, swapped in an 8.8, built the D-30, and somewhere around then I built that front bumper.
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Then after that I built the Waggy 44, added a cage and chopped the top.
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Built a new front bumper, bought some Lawn mower tires and changed a few other small things but other than that the last few years have been uneventful with the hatching of my youngest kiddo.
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I obviously skipped a lot of stuff and got some stuff out of order but that pretty much brings us to today… You get the point.

Built Waggy 44
Built 8.8
About 5" of lift
RK 3-link
Etc...
 
I’d grown pretty bored with the current build. All my friends are running 40’s and tons… I liked the challenge of keeping up but the Jeep was taking a serious beating in order to keep up. Then, my bestest buddy, Will, offered to build some boat sides on the Jeep for me. After several days of talking the plan had turned into lots of tube and a lot less sheet metal. I started cutting away stuff and ended up with a sad looking unibody…

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Loaded it up with 220’ of DOM tube and towed it down to Carrollton to Will’s house.

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Left it sitting here:

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Sold the cage, axles, rear bumper, wheels, tires, and a few other things to fund this little change. Bought a set of 05+ Super Duty Ford axles, looking for a set of 39-40” tires and 17” wheels. Also in the process of rounding up parts to build a 231/300 doubler. Keeping the rear leafs for not but building with rear 4-link in mind for the future.

Now, here it sits:

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Every time I do anything remotely interesting I always tell myself I’m not going to tell anyone until I’m done but I talk too much so I won’t even bother trying to keep it a secret.

Once I got the Jeep to Will’s house and he sold all the good parts off of it for me he started cutting…

Shortening up the rear a bit:

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Shackles off the rear “Bumper” for now until I can pay for links…

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MUCH better shackle angle than before. Going to either build or buy some better shackles, obviously.

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This should be interesting.....
 
You people aren’t very lively. Maybe it’ll get more interesting farther down the road.

Boat sides are well under way.

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Pretty significant difference between D30 brakes and F250 brakes… lol

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Is Will unemployed? He sure seems to be getting a lot accomplished in a short amount of time.

Andy, are you helping him or living through the photos he sends?
 
Is Will unemployed? He sure seems to be getting a lot accomplished in a short amount of time.

Andy, are you helping him or living through the photos he sends?

He works 2nd and 3rd shift. He's had the Jeep for almost 3 weeks so far. He does work fast though.

Unfortunately, Will lives almost 4 hours from me. I'd sure love to be there to be able to help with the tube work. Heck, I wish I had the bender, time and welding skills to do it all myself but I just don't. Once Will is done with the tube work I'll go pick up the chassis and build the axles back at my house.

So, I'm living through pictures. And Will works more than he takes pictures so he keeps holding out on me. lol
 
So you joining the sticky club. BGF's?
 
Why 5 total to make one?

I only need 1 D300 and 1 NP231.

The ones that I found are in various states of broken. One of the D300's has a broken output and both of the 231's are broken. Basically, the deals that I found that included what I needed came as a package deal with a bunch of t-cases. lol
 
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